A miracle is what is not naturally possible. It is a supernatural occurrence. It
is paranormal.

Religion uses miracles as evidence for the truth of its claims.

Miracles are events that seem to be against nature or the way natural law
usually runs. In other words, they cannot be explained by nature. Examples are
the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to children, the unexplained cure of incurable
illness, blood coming out of nowhere on Catholic communion wafers, the sun
spinning at Fatima in Portugal in 1917 and most importantly Jesus Christ coming
back to life after being dead nearly three days. It is thought that only God can
do these things.

I am more sure I exist than I am that anything else does therefore I come first
and I should be helping others only to please myself. This view is called egoism
or self-centredness or rational selfishness.

We are not talking about selfishness in the sense of wanting to hurt others for
its own sake.

The Christians hold that as we must sacrifice for God it is a sin to help others
or God just to please yourself. That is loving yourself and using them to do it.

To think that miracles are done for a good purpose is mad for they should be
happening discreetly to change our disordered selfish desires to make us more
useful to others so that we practice rational selfishness instead of harmful
selfishness. Miracles would be unnecessary and would imply a useless God who
needs them to correct the result of his bungling and should have made our
feelings ordered and the way they should be in the first place. Miracles if they
can really be taken as signs from God imply then that we should be altruists and
not egoists so they are done to encourage suffering for altruism is evil and
demeaning. We can’t say that we should be altruists when others need help and
egoists when they do not for we can always find something to do for others which
means that we improve ourselves in the ways of selfishness and do good for
others.

When I am most sure I exist nothing outside of me, be it an apparition of Jesus
or some other miracle, has any business judging my motives or accusing me of
doing wrong deliberately. I must judge myself which is another reason why it is
so important to have a fully rational basis for the chief things like God and
right conduct in our lives and why religion must be fought for it is wrong. So,
nobody outside of me has any business telling me I have free will for that
accuses me of being sinful. I know I can do bad but nobody knows if I meant it
or not for nobody can be me but me. They can judge my actions but not me. Thus
unless I can prove by my own individual experience that I have free will and can
sin or be immoral (that is, do what I believe to be wrong of my own free will) I
should not believe in it. (And experience does not prove it or even give
evidence of it. It gives the opposites for I see how feelings and thoughts work
up to the thought and desire that causes me to act just the way they would if
they were a response to some force controlling me. They work like the reactions
inside a computer that lead to the computer carrying out your command. But
that’s not relevant here.) So for an apparition, religion teacher, minister or
priest, Bible or anybody else to tell me that I am a sinner or have been immoral
or have free will is for them to degrade me and endeavour to trample upon me.

You may never feel more free and more happy than when you indulge your desire to
help others and when you do it to indulge. You are doing it for you and not
them. It follows that even if we might be wrong, we should assume that others
help us for themselves and not for our sake.

If people report miracles that is not going to do us any good. So we can assume
that they more than most are doing it because they want to believe in miracles.

Egoism is doing good for others while being motivated to do this simply because
you enjoy it. It is the enjoyment you want. The good results for others are
really a side-effect. This is harmful in the sense that it puts enjoyment above
people's happiness. Its a form of selfishness. But it means that practically
speaking you can be one amazing person. Egotism is defined as selfishness which
does not work for the wellbeing of others but against it.

I have a bun. I want to eat it. My friend wants it too. I give it to him.
Religion says that this is an act of altruism or self-sacrifice. It is the
motive that must be examined.

If I give it because I can, I am not giving it for him.

If it give it because its unselfish then I am giving it for a principle and not
for him.

If I give it to be unselfish then I must expect him to be unselfish and give it
back. If I don't then I regard unselfishness as bad. Therefore I am not giving
it because I intend to be good. A good result does not mean I had a good
intention.

Egoism is about indulging desires. If we are naturally egoists, then the notion
of God doing miracles as signs is ridiculous. Why? Because all he needs to do is
tweak our emotional responses. We have no control over our feelings. We think we
have control and loads of it. When I feel miserable and go for a walk to cheer
myself up it seems I am controlling the feeling. But I did not make the good
feeling. It happened just because I went for a walk. It might not have happened.
So I never control my feelings.

If I am an egoist, then my god is me. I can't have another god. God setting up a
religion with miracles and a theology to win me would only show God's own
ignorance.

We are all egoists. We only do what we want to do under the circumstances. And
wanting to do something necessarily implies you want to feel fulfilled by doing
this thing. So what is the point of a God looking for worship from us and doing
miracles for that purpose when all I love is myself? If miracles oppose egoism
as religion claims then they are evil and want me to curse the way I am. Only I
can decide what I should or shouldn’t do so God should mind his own business and
not be making out that it is my duty to believe what he says.

God is only a bully for commanding me to love him. And so is anybody who is his
messenger for they urge that duty upon me. Miracles are bad if they encourage
such degradation.

Miracle stories are enjoyable. People find lies more
interesting than the truth. So there is a danger of those stories being lies.
Another attraction is how people think that when they experience miracles that
they are favoured by God and those who do not have experience are not favoured
or not favoured yet. To say that some are chosen to experience miracles is to
say that they are favoured over others. It boosts their egos which is why you
can be in big trouble if you tell a religious believer in miracles to have some
sense.

All miracles, assuming they happen at all, are evil -
indirectly if not directly.